Mexican-American Acculturartion - Research Paper Example

 Mexican-American Acculturation Introduction Acculturation entails adopting one’s culture to that of a new culture, and is observed via attitudinal and behavioral changes. Acculturation should however not be confused with general status or length of time within a country. It varies from individuals to families. The quantity of first hand contact as well as interaction that an immigrant has people, services, schools, and the community of the dominant culture consequently affects their level of acculturation. For the Mexicans who immigrate into the US, acculturation connotes a process that entails changing their culture to the native or dominant culture within the United States. Background From a historical perspective, acculturation has been examined from a variety of frameworks, the most common one being assimilation. The description of assimilation is afforded by identifying an individual on a continuum that leads to two possible destinations; either the news culture they are encountering, or their culture of origin. This hypothesis implores that as individuals who immigrate to the United States, become more similar in culture to Anglos, they tend to lose an equal quantity of their original culture. Some researchers have however differed with the assimilation theory citing that it is possible for individuals to keep traits of both their culture of origin and their new culture. These proponents describe acculturation in three distinct stages; low acculturation, high acculturation, and biculturalism. Low acculturation is the maintenance or guarding of a culture of origin, with little or no acculturation whatsoever into the dominant culture. On the other hand, high acculturation entails integrating quite well into the dominant culture and foregoing the original culture of an individual. Biculturalism is a concept inferring that an individual can be acculturated to the dominant culture and still retains aspects of their culture of origin. People from across the world immigrate to the United States to either settle in the country or spend several years for educational or career purposes. As individuals move into the country, they start coping with and adjusting to the culture and customs of America. Hispanics account for 13.7% of the Americans, population majority of who are Mexican-Americans. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, more and more Mexican-Americans started settling in urban areas, and there was an especially significant influx of Mexican-Americans in American cities, because in the barrios, they found similar languages and cultures. Acculturation proves to be a process that is quite complex for Hispanic immigrants, especially American children of the first generation. Mexicans families immigrating into the United States encountered a struggle in terms of their children adapting to the new country’s culture, owing to the Mexican heritage they had. Language as a problem existed as a problem for both US-born and Hispanic adolescents. Compared to boys, girls tend to struggle more with acculturation, but parents experience even greater difficulty. Difficulties attributed to complexities of acculturation have a negated impact on general mental health and self-esteem (Denmark et al 2003). Numerous Mexican women immigrate to the United States impulsively as a result of their spouses, hence become involuntary immigrants. Many other Mexicans migrate to the United States looking for better professional and educational opportunities. The voluntary immigrants tend to exhibit greater positive attitudes towards the US than the involuntary immigrants who become homesick. The voluntary group is more easily adoptable to the new language and culture (Denmark et al 2003). Mexican immigrants experience various difficulties in acculturation such as discrimination, overcrowding, unemployment, and also lack of health services. This ethnicity’s female populace experiences health problems linked to pregnancy and childbearing. Moreover, language as a barrier is an impediment to them in terms of performing regular chores such as laundry, cooking and shopping. Women with jobs face great problems in the event that their salaries exceed those of their spouses. IQ levels of Mexican children are generally lower owing to the fact that they are unable to afford numerous educational opportunities, and a cultural background that is equipped for advancement in education. As a result, most Mexican –Americans have a tendency of leaning towards manual labor (Denmark et al 2003). To establish the relationship between health risks and US residency tenure, as well as compare illness risks between immigrants and Mexican Americans born in the US, a study was conducted on 3050 Mexican Americans aged 65 and above. Not so much difference emerged between US-born Mexican-Americans, and those who immigrated into the country. Immigrants with longer habitation periods in the US exhibited scores of higher cognitive functioning and lesser functional activity problems following adjustment, for medical needs and predisposing factors (Gonzalez et al 2009). This study concluded that any negative health issue dogging younger Mexican –Americans can turn positive later on their lives. This can be ascribed to economic growth among this group with time, leading to easy accessibility of health services. Research has indicated that individuals hailing from a bicultural background acculturate quite well. A study was performed on a duo consistent of a child and a parent from 74 Mexican- American families, in order to establish the relationship between involvement in leisure and family functioning (Christensen et al 2006). Mexican- American families exhibit less divorce rates. In addition, their families are smaller and more unified. The study showed that most Mexican-American youth who are bicultural were female and considers the families as more adaptable. They are also more engaged in family leisure activities compared to Mexican-American youths who are acculturated. This study indicated higher tendencies in males towards acculturation. Females are more prone to be bicultural. This can be attributed to the general abandonment of cultural backgrounds by Mexican-American males, to adopt to a new culture and begin a new lifestyle. Females on the other hand stay rooted to their background of origin and adapt to the new language and culture as well. As such, females exhibit the aptitude to remain traditional and have the flair of speaking English at equal or greater levels compared to their male counterparts (Christensen et al 2006). Studies eon Mexican Americans highlight the occurrence of changes in leisure behavior owing to acculturation. A study by Floyd and Gramann on the impact that Mexican-American acculturation has on patterns of outdoor recreation discovered that the effects ascribed to acculturation were not so much expressed in the kind of recreational areas visited compared to the kinds of recreational activities chosen. Mexican-Americans with low acculturation engaged in significantly fewer activities of outdoor recreation including urban, snow-based, travel-oriented, and water-based leisure than Anglo-Americans. Mexican-Americans who are bicultural took part in considerably fewer travel-oriented and snow/water-based activities than Anglo-Americans, whereas Mexican –Americans who are highly acculturated did not exude a significant difference in any activity other than water/snow-based activities compared to the Anglo-Americans. According to Floyd and Gramann (2008), in some instances, Mexican-Americans of low acculturation may conserve their culture by maintaining patterns of leisure that resemble those of their native country. Mexican-Americans have however changed their cultural characteristics and leisure demeanor over generation, to match those of Anglo-America’s culture. Another study by Floyd et al (2003) looked at what effects acculturation had on the use of outdoor areas of recreation. The results indicated that Mexican-American exhibiting low acculturation significantly differed from Anglo-Americans in the use of three out of thirteen recreational areas. Acculturation emerged as the second most significant variable after education, in explicating variations in overall participation of in outdoor recreation ambiences between Mexican-Americans and Anglo-Americans. Mexicans with low acculturation seemingly choose recreational areas and leisure patterns with high resemblance to their original surroundings and culture. There is a possibility that by upholding patterns of leisure similar to their original culture, such Mexican-Americans tend not to acculturate as fast as those Mexican-Americans who take part in leisure patterns of the dominant culture. Another line of research conducted by Hutchison and Fidel (2004) discovered that Mexican-Americans spent significant proportions of time taking part in sedentary activities like watching sports and picnicking than Anglo-American or African-American populations. Observations conducted in 18 public parks in Chicago highlighted that for Anglos, the participating group’s average size was 2.5, whereas for Mexican-Americans it was 5.7. These researchers propounded that the variety of ages of the individuals and the presence of both genders in Mexican-American groupings was an indication of family units. Hutchison consequently reported 2.5 more likelihood of being in a family group than Anglo-Americans or African-Americans. The findings by Hutchinson and Fidel on the orientation of Mexican-American leisure were supported by conducting a comparison of the social group composition Central, Anglo, and Mexican-American populations at four sites of two National Forests in South Carolina. The findings highlighted Mexican-Americans as more likely to be present at a site with extended and immediate family than both Anglo and Central Americans. Despite the fact that such findings have been consistent in indicating the important place of leisure to Mexican-Americans, research conducted on acculturation has continually focused on the individual. Studies on the functioning of family and acculturated Mexican-American families have elicited varied results. A family systems framework, to be specific Olsen’s Circumplex Model, has been used to evaluate the functioning of family and acculturation. This model postulates that the functioning of family is primarily based on models of family adaptability and family cohesion. There are differences in the family adaptability of Mexican-Americans and Anglo-Americans. As a group, Mexican-Americans tend to score higher in family adaptability in comparison to Anglo-Americans. This indicates their higher flexibility in solving problems or dealing/coping with new situations. Being highly adaptable, Mexican-American families are more flexible with responsibility, household chores, and even family leadership as they attempt to adjust to the Anglo-American lifestyle. A different study made use of an open system view from a perspective of family systems to look the functioning of family and acculturation. This view of the open system was operationalized through external versus internal aspects of the functioning of family. The internal aspects included family interactions, relationships, and structures. The external aspects entailed how the family interacted with American institutions like public schools, in a addition to how the family internalized societal norms like dinner-table etiquette. The study interestingly discovered no major relationship between acculturation and the internal aspects ascribed to family functioning. This means that with the acculturation of Mexican-American families, there was no significant change in their family interactions and relationships. Conversely, there was a significant link between the external family functioning aspects and acculturation. Along with the acculturation of Mexican- American families came the progressive involvement with the society of the United States. As such, Mexican-Americans get more involved with the dominant society, but maintain similar interactions, relationships, and family structures of their original culture. Donald Atkinson and Lucila-Ramos examined the relationship between Mexican acculturation, gender, cultural values, and help-seeking interactions among college students who are Mexican-American. Results from the study indicated that as Mexican-Americans emigrate from their original culture and increase the status of their generation, they are generally less likely to seek mental help since they develop a less favorable attitude towards seeking help. Additionally, in contrast to the prevalent notion, adhering to Mexican culture and their cultural values can actually function to encourage help-seeking. The findings highlighted that those Mexican-Americans of the lower generation who presumably exhibit great orientation to Mexican culture showed stronger intentions of seeking help than Mexican-Americans of the higher generation. The results also seem to suggest that as Mexican-Americans continue to digress from the Mexican culture in forthcoming generations, they also digress in terms of attitude by seeking less help. The suggestion imbued by the study is that maintaining an individual’s original culture can positively impact the manner in which individuals perceive services for mental health. This may result from the fact that some Mexican values encourage Mexican-Americans to use mental health services. The suggestion supports a study conducted in 1999 by Ramos-Sanchez et al, who propounded that the respect given to figures of authority by Mexican-Americans who are less acculturated than those of high acculturation status accounted for a more significant willingness to utilize counseling. With reference to findings based on gender, results support previous findings that highlighted women as being more willing to seek psychological services compared to men, and that minimal self-disclosure and emotional expression by men inhibits them from going after psychological services. This raises great concern, owing to the fact that Mexican-American men report similar or even higher rates of psychiatric disorders compared to Mexican-American women. Acculturation may be ascribed o depression in Mexican-Americans, who are the United States’ fastest-growing ethnic group. Low acculturated Mexican-Americans have a higher likelihood of being stressed the dominant culture affords them limited access to resources for assistance (Meir 2005). Hispanics who tend to retain their culture, on exposure to a new culture develop more mental problems. Distress may come about in the event that high acculturation results in the estrangement of an individual’s ethnic group, positive sense of the individual and social support. Therefore, a higher level of support can increase distress when a person is discriminated against or prevented from acquiring a social status. However, bicultural individuals who can identify with both cultures can experience psychological adjustment in a healthier way. Acculturative stressors may not necessarily lead to an acculturative stress. The extent to which an entity or event is responsible for acculturative stress is dependent on both the traits of the dominant society and the individual. Research on acculturation and mental health among Mexican-Americans has elicited inconsistent results. Studies have been devoid of sensitivity to gender, and have been limited to theories of development. Nevertheless, gender emerges as a predictor of depression among Mexican-American adolescents. A study found a considerable negative correlation between acculturation and depression in Mexican-American women. Low acculturation was linked to symptoms of depression female Mexican immigrants living in the United States. Less acculturated Mexican-Americans had had considerably higher depression levels when compared to African Americans or Mexican-Americans. Low acculturation among Mexican-American elders was linked with higher psychological stress levels. Past research has examined biculturalism and depression. Among Mexican-Americans, a bicultural orientation was linked to healthy adjustment. Being bicultural is the least detrimental option to the mental health of Hispanics. Bicultural Mexican-Americans had lower depression rates compared to both low and high acculturation groups of the population. Among Mexican-American university students, the group that was most acculturate had significantly higher scores of depression (Ramos-Sanchez & Atkinson 2009). This suggest that a lot more should be done by professionals in the mental health sector to see to it that Mexican-American men obtain the treatment they need. From the study’s findings, it is imperative that counselors place more focus on examining possible institutional barriers than blaming culture for the trend in non-help-seeking behavior for mental situations. More programs targeting acculturated Mexican-Americans to keep them informed about counseling and promoting help-seeking values should be developed. Conclusion Mexicans are a particularly large group of US immigrants amidst the numerous ethnic groups in the United States. There is a possibility that they will occupy a distinct position in America’s society, owing to their acculturation to the American language and culture. Mexican- Americans can discover a more realistic way of adjusting to a new life in the United States by concisely embracing biculturalism. References Christenson, O. D., et al. (2006). Family Acculturation, Family Leisure Involvement, and Family Functioning among Mexican-Americans. Journal of Leisure Research, 38(4), 475-495. Denmark, F. L., et al. (2003). Immigration to the United States: The Dream and the Reality. In L. L. Adler & U. P. Gielen (Eds.), Migration: Immigration and Emigration in International Perspective (pp.73-104). USA: Greenwood Publishing Group. Floyd, M. F. (1998). Getting beyond marginality and ethnicity: The challenge for race and ethnic studies in leisure research. Joum.at of Leisure Rcsearcti, 30, 3-22. Floyd, M. F., Gramann, J. H., & Saenz, R. (1993). Ethnic factors and the use of public outdoor recreation areas: The case of the Mexican Americans. Leisure Sciences, 15, 83-98 Gonzalez, H. M., et al. (2009). The Health of Older Mexican-Americans in the Long Run. American Journal of Public Health, 99(10), 1879-1885. Hutchison, R., & Fidel, K. (1984). Mexican-American recreation activities: A reply to McMillen. Joumat of Leisure Research, 16, 344-349 Meier, M. S. (2005). Mexican-Americans. In J. D. Buenker & L.A. Ratner (Eds.), Multiculturalism in the United States: A Comparative Guide to Acculturation and Ethnicity (pp. 301-324). USA: Greenwood Publishing Group. Ramos-Sanchez, L., & Atkinson, D.R. (2009). The relationships between Mexican American acculturation, cultural values, gender, and help-seeking intentions. Journal of Counseling & Development, 87, 62-71. Read More